Diane Mehta was born in Frank­furt, grew up in Bom­bay and New Jer­sey, and lives in New York City. Her sec­ond poet­ry col­lec­tion, Tiny Extrav­a­gan­zas, comes out from Arrow­smith Press in 2023 and her nov­el, Leav­ing Mal­abar Hill, comes out with OR Books in 2024. The nov­el is loose­ly based on her par­ents’ sto­ry but set in an ear­li­er era, just before Indi­a’s Par­ti­tion India and Israeli statehood.

Her work has been rec­og­nized by the Peter Heinegg Lit­er­ary Award, the Café Roy­al Cul­tur­al Foun­da­tion, a Kir­by-Mew­shaw fel­low­ship at Civitel­la Ranieri, and a fel­low­ship at Yad­do. She was the found­ing man­ag­ing edi­tor of A Pub­lic Space, launched and edit­ed Glos­so­lalia for PEN Amer­i­ca to pub­lish writ­ing from tra­di­tion­al­ly under­rep­re­sent­ed lan­guages, and was exec­u­tive non­fic­tion edi­tor for Guer­ni­ca. She pub­lish­es poet­ry, essays, and crit­i­cism for The New York­er, The New York Times, The Har­vard Review, The Keny­on Review, The Notre Dame Review, Amer­i­can Poet­ry Review, and A Pub­lic Space.